This excerpt is from “Success, Your Path to a Successful Book,” by Maralyn D. Hill & Brenda C. Hill.

Well, in a way, it is sad to say… traditional publishing seems to be going the way of the typewriters, rotary phones, and Victrolas… Still, there is a place for them. We loved walking by those imposing lions guarding the gates at Random House. We did not like waiting so long for its schedule for publications. It took close to a year or more, but seemed even longer.

POD, the internet, as well as a sprinkling of small literary publishers, are the present and future. Often, a book rejected by a major publisher will go on to be highly successful.

Rarely, a publisher will pick up a self-published book and publish a second edition. This can happen if your self-published book has sold 5,000 to 10,000 books in a short period of time. Ken Blanchard and The One Minute Manager is an example of a huge success that started out as self-published. Red Hot Internet Publicity by Penny C. Sansevieri is another that was picked up in 2008 and has just released a new edition.

For us, it simply took too long to publish in the traditional way. We had made the mistake of telling contributors that we would have it to them by the end of the year. The publisher who wanted to produce our book would have taken over a year.

We used POD, however, this required us to do a great deal of editing, formatting, and all marketing. However, in genral, traditional publishers only give your 30 to 60 days marketing.